Roger J. McInerny, Jr.

Private First Class Roger J. McInerny

Note:
I found this document among papers I had collected regarding Roger Jr. It apparently is a typed version of a newspaper article written about Roger, my parents and siblings. I do not know who the author is, nor if the type written account is an accurate reflection of the original article. Judging from references in the article, the original article appears to have been written in 1997. I have made minor spelling, punctuation and paragraph spacing corrections. Thank you. Paul D. McInerny, June 8, 2011

Private First Class Roger J. McInerny, Jr. and his company were hard at work securing a fire support base in the area of Tay Ninh, Vietnam, when they suddenly came under heavy rocket, mortar and ground attack. He immediately moved to the perimeter of the base, where he fired until his weapon malfunctioned, though he was within feet of impending explosion. After his weapon failure, Roger proceeded to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat until he was mortally wounded.

Roger J. McInerny, Jr., lovingly called “Rog” by his family, was a nineteen-year-old boy. He had just graduated from a Catholic high school and was attending junior college. He teased and bickered with his five younger siblings, (oldest to youngest) Paul, Jenny, Vivi, Maurice and Joe. He worked hard to make his parents, Roger and Luella, proud of him. He was your average American young man. This young man lost his life fighting for his country, and for democracy, far from home in the Vietnam War.

There are many stories like his, because the average American soldier was a nineteen-year-old, middle class boy. The way Rog’s family reacted to his death was diversified to each member of the group. Their different reactions provide an enlightening reflection of the overall effects on American society.

Vietnam is often described as a “working class war.” One of its main source of criticism is that many families lost their sons and brothers to a conflict that they hardly understood. Luella, Rog’s mother, exemplified this principle. “I hadn’t a clue as to what was going on. Housewives were involved in trying to make a pound of burger feed eight people. I was a homemaker with six kids to take care of and the war was ‘over there.’ Who even thought of it?”

With three brothers involved in the military, and two sons fast approaching the age of 18, Roger Sr., who had a more vast knowledge of current world events, paid much attention to the war. “The way I saw it was that we were in Vietnam to prevent communism for taking over South Vietnam as they had tried to do in 1950 South Korea.”

Vivi, Rog’s second sister, looks back on the “working class war” label bitterly. “I had heard my brother, my family and everyone like us, dismissed as chumps and suckers, dumb enough to die.”

The younger children, such as Joe, the youngest, were completely confused as to why they had sacrificed a brother. “Initially, I didn’t understand at all what the war was about. In fact, I didn’t understand what the Army was. When Rog went into the Army, I imagined it was like when Maurice (second youngest child) and I played army. I thought he joined up, got a uniform and a gun, and started shooting at people.”

The same basic results would be found of anyone in these positions in 1960s/1970s society. Mothers and homemakers were concerned with feeding the family, the father was concerned with politics and reading the evening paper, and children grasped at their quickly disappearing innocence, enjoying as much of their youth as they could in the shadow of a war.

Though understanding of the conflict was limited to the father in the family, a sense of honor and patriotic duty were abound in the McInerny home. “I was and am very proud that (Paul) and…Roger volunteered for service in 1969…[He] and [Rog] were a part of our national history,” remarks Roger Sr.

Luella commented that, “all of the boys in [Roger Sr.’s] family were in the service, and were very strong about patriotic duty.” Roger Sr. recounts a conversation with Rog. “Roger had told me that one of his professors said that poor blacks were bearing the brunt of the war, and Roger wanted to do his share. [He] had a sense of honor and duty.”

Vivi has mixed feelings about Rog’s patriotism. She describes him as, “a boy – all of nineteen-years-old who held onto traditional beliefs of honor and duty to his country a little longer than was fashionable. Certainly, too long.”

Though this type of patriotism was abundant in Midwestern communities like that of Richfield, Minnesota, and in families with strong military backgrounds, boys Roger’s age in other parts, and with different family belief systems were not so quick to enlist.

Both parents agree that religion played a large role in coping with their loss. Luella first states, “I guess it didn’t change my religious practices other than to make me, of course, include [Rog] in my daily prayers, and to pray more for the kids all here that this would never happen again,” she then adds, “I guess it did make me more religious now when I think of it.” Roger Sr. concurs with; “Our Catholic faith and family love were very essential to our coping with that terrible ordeal in April 1970. I’m thankful we had that faith and love.”

The event played a major role in the formation of the younger children’s beliefs, also. Jenny, the third child, recalls, “When I saw my parents remain strong in their beliefs despite the most devastating thing that could happen to a parent, I think it caused me to become stronger in my beliefs.”

She also recalls an incident with Maurice upon the delivery of the bad news. “He said he didn’t understand why we were all crying because Rog was in heaven now, and shouldn’t we all be happy? Mom smiled and said, “from the mouth of babes.” She smiled and told us Maurice was right.” Luella reaffirmed Maurice’s faith by explaining to him that she did believe Rog was in heaven, but she had to cry because she would miss him terribly.

This type of terrible trauma affected many families in America wartime. In every religion, faith was being tested, patience and understanding were being stretched to their utmost limits. This created tension within every type of family.

One of the frequent effects of a loss in a war is the loss of trust in the government. Luella clearly states, “ After Roger’s death, I have never trusted the government again. I feel they all lie just to make things sound good.” Not only has she lost trust in the government, but she also seems to have developed an acute disgust for it. "I now feel very sad when baby boys are born as I just think of them as cannon fodder for the old coots in Washington who decide to fight a war. It is okay with them because they don’t send their own kids, but only someone’s else’s.”

The younger members of the generation, like Joe, see the era as their first, and rather distasteful introduction to politics and the U.S. government. “I essentially came of age understanding that our president was a bad person, kind of like an evil king who had to be overthrown.” Constant protests, such as the infamous Kent State University incident, attest to this widely shared belief. Youth from all over the nation began to develop a distaste and distrust for their government.

Family life was also subject to a drastic change during the ordeal of dealing with Rog’s untimely death. Luella remembers the change in attitudes at home. “Rog’s death changed the family in that [Roger Sr.] had a hard time with disciplining the younger ones ever again. I had to try to be the firm hand in the family and I was not good at it.”

Jenny recalls her change toward her parents and toward her children now. “Having seen my parents in such pain, I tried never to hurt them at all. I hate to yell at my own kids – remembering that something could happen to them and those would be the last words they heard from me.”

Joe was younger, but still had the same idea. "It was the most traumatic change for me, having seen my parents go through so much sadness. I just didn’t want them to feel sad anymore.” This type of awful event often affects the way the next generation of children is brought up, thus having profound, but indirect effect on the new members of American society.

Even now, over twenty years after the United States fought many losing battles and twenty-seven years after the death of Rog, the McInerny family is still affected by the war and their loss in many ways. Roger Sr. writes, “It was a terrible shock to lose a son – it still hurts. Even after all these years there are frequent reminders of him throughout the house and neighborhood.” On an optimistic note he adds, “I never feel the need to blame anyone for his dying a hero’s death. At the time, it seemed that all our efforts had been in vain. Now, twenty years later, the Berlin Wall is down, Germany is united, communism has been rejected in Russia and in Eastern Europe, and we now have an ambassador in Vietnam and commerce with China. Perhaps what we did in Korea, Vietnam Libya and Grenada were all important factors in the ending of the Cold War and for the first time in fifty years, a major war isn’t a dominant concern for our world.”

Luella’s constant reminders of the war don’t give her much consolation. “I find I can’t watch war shows or the film clips of the war or any of the enactments at the various military places around. It is too close to what really happens.”

Vivi [a writer for the Oregonian Newspaper – added by Paul D. McInerny 6/8/2011] receives a steady stream of reminders of her brother from men now who would be the same age. “I feel a strange connection to Vietnam veterans, as though they are all my lost brothers. And when I meet men who are the age my brother would be, should be, and hear them brag about how they were too smart or too rich to fight in Vietnam, I feel only sadness for their lack of compassion."

Jenny’s troubles extend to the new Vietnamese inhabitants of Minnesota. “The Hmong have settled in the Twin Cities in large numbers. They set up craft booths and people buy their products. I am uncomfortable with this. I have heard the vets talk about the Hmong and how they couldn’t tell who was the enemy and who was their ally. There was a lot of deceptions and I am left with the irrational feeling that these are the people who killed my brother.” She also has developed an intense empathy for young boys, as did her mother. “I feel a very strong affection for boys. Deep inside knowing that the draft could be recalled…When I see young men in army uniforms, I just want to give them a hug and tell them to be safe…I worry about the short time we have with each other and everyone seems more precious.”

The entire McInerny family have a deep-laid scar in their past. Fortunately, all of them have learned to grow and heal. Society however, has not been so lucky. There are many people still bitter and regretful about American involvement in Vietnam and even more so for the many lives we lost there. Society must learn to heal, but never to forget.

“For if we forget them, they will have died twice.”